Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Rare PKD Photo of the Day

This photo was kindly sent to me by Tessa Dick. According to her it was taken in Phil's condo sometime in 1980, right around the time Panter interviewed PKD for Slash Magazine. (Interview here: you're welcome).

She writes:

"I took that photo shortly after the magazine people gave him the Rozz Tox T-shirt. Phil was sitting on his sofa in his condo. He said that he really liked Nicole Panter."

The Rozz Tox Manifesto (which you can read here), written by Gary Panter, argues that artists should work within the capitalist system, so I can see why he might like it. The more iconic image of PKD in the same shirt is available here. Panter writes in the Manifesto:

Item 4: We say, enough to the instigators of game show design, for we are sick and dizzy. Show us the backs of these monstrous facades, for even bare plywood is a healthier visual texture. Oh you seekers of the new who run terrified from history into the clutches of an eternal life where no electric shaver can be built to last.

Kinda sounds like someone we know huh?

Frequent commenter Robert Cook adds this detail to another recent post which used the Panter photo:

This photo was taken by Gary Panter or his then-wife Nicole (former manager of L.A. punk band the Germs), who visited Dick in the late 70s and took several pictures of Dick, alone and posing with Panter. Dick is seen in the photos wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with one of Panter's drawings.

"Gary Panter is a renowned illustrator, fine artist and designer, and he has drawn for 70s L.A. punkzine SLASH, he designed PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE for Pee Wee Herman, and he has published many cartoon stories of his character JIMBO, a sort of punk Candide. Recently, a huge two-volume slip-cased monograph on his work has been published, with one volume consisting solely of excerpts from Panter's sketchbooks, while the other volume features his illustrations, paintings, constructions, and contains several articles about him and an interview with him."

According to Tessa the picture on the wall is of Fat Freddy, this one to be precise:

Thanks Tessa!(And readers stay tuned for a much more extensive question and answer post with Tessa soon!)